The cloud battle rages on.

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Microsoft has today announced that its investments in cloud computing in Europe exceeded $3 billion, as it plans to open a new data centre in France, next year. Besides announcing the new data centre, it has also released a new book, entitled “A Cloud for Global Good,” containing policy recommendations for things like data protection. The company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, said the investment comes as a result of a ‘growing demand’ from both European customers, and partners.

“Building a global, trusted, intelligent cloud platform is core to our mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. There’s never been a better time for organizations across Europe to seize new growth and opportunity with the Microsoft Cloud.”

What’s interesting at this point, and has already been pointed out by Tech Crunch, is the fact that Amazon already announced it is basically doing the same thing – building a data centre in France – a month ago. “The Microsoft Cloud, including Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365, offers customers a trusted global infrastructure with 30 available, and 36 announced, data centre regions — more than any other major cloud provider in Europe and globally,” the company said in a press release.

“These investments mean that more European customers are using the Microsoft Cloud to transform their businesses and their lives.” The Ministry of Defence for the United Kingdom, employing some 250,000 people, will use Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure cloud services, as the government continues on its path of digital transformation.